Indian Stock markets and My Life...

This is one part of my life that keeps life interesting for me! I jumped in to this amazing maze called as NSE (National Stock Exchange of India) about 2 years ago.. thought not a bad idea considering one of my friends had an in-depth knowledge of its working. So there on a summer morning 2 years ago i sat with an agent and went through the process of creating an account. Once that was done i thought okies i am in the casino now let's Play!
The first thing that strikes a novice like me as a hurdle is how much should i invest or rather bluntly put how much can i afford loosing..although no one likes to lose but it is a part of the gamble now is it not?
So i thought ok 6 or 10 k is an amount i could forget i had incase i did loose and hence said, let me start with 6. There are other reasons for this being a number on my good books, and those who know me well will know why!
Hence there i was on the laptop and thinking what to buy and what not to.. which was pretty easy as my friend was there to advise on this matter. The first thing i remember him telling me was dont buy anything way too costly and look for something which is traded in high volumes, meaning go for something cheap and which many people like dealing with!
Then there were some options he gave me, like some subsidiaries of Reliance Industries. I said ok and started the process of buying and as any one knows in such a gamble you always have something called as a Beginner's Luck! and i too had my share of them. I made about 3/4th of what i invested in the first week, and i was overjoyed!!!
I then said let me put more as who does not like making a quick buck?
So there i was thinking of expanding my risks and had that mind set of be ready to lose more if you want to gain more! Hence i set forth on the next episode of risk taking.. i started buying in the morning and selling by the end of day which gave me good returns but the pressure was also similar, that is HIGH! This went on for a week or so and during one of our weekend beer meet, my friend gave another set of advise, one never be too greedy and dont lose Patience! I sat on this suggestion and wondered how can someone not be greedy and make money? I was thinking about this and trading when i saw the market fly like a Eagle takes to the skies!
I now started thinking when should i sell or should i hold on it for a while just in-case it goes up more than now, and i did that grave mistake, i waited! And as you might have guessed it did not go up but came down like a meteorite crashing to the earth... although i washed my hands before i went in to the red, but at this point i understood the true meaning of not being over Greedy!
I had no regrets as i did not lose but it was a nice lesson learnt!
Then i always set targets and when it was achieved i sold off and went about happily with my affairs for the rest of the day, but there came a time when i had invested more and i was in the red before i could do a thing! There was hue and cry all over with the sudden downward movement in the markets and the World gave it a name and called it a RECESSION! i don't know what it taught the financial gurus but it taught me PATIENCE! There were numerous people who said " I told you so" and there were others who said this is not good way to make or play with money as it is similar to gambling!
Now listening to these people i always wondered, is Life itself not a gamble? We all gamble throughout our lives, and we also try to insure our gamble through Life Insurance!
But it is tough to try and explain this to people who already have made up their mind, hence never tried to convince such people.
But i had patience and hence waited for almost a year and 2 months when things started to improve and as luck would have it there was a court judgment which turned in favor of my stock! You might think the market is a sophisticated place where money is dealt with but having been in the jungle for so much time i am confident to say that Indian markets still run on the RUMORS that are spread! Imagine the Panic or aggressive buying that can be triggered when rumors are spread among 95 million people who are gambling in a single day? This can make or break lives! It is fun and very exciting but equally dangerous if you let your judgment be clouded by the rumors!
So after a year or so waiting my patience paid of and i made a handsome returns of 35% which no bank would give me during that period! I was happy and satisfied with myself and all my critics were giving me the " I was concerned about you " look!
So this is what i would say, any new business venture is good as long as you have the right attitude and the correct balance of greed and patience to go with it and a small peg of risk taking!
Cheers to Life